‘Flying’ Sharks and Angry Birds Invade Miami

Sharks are awesome. Flying sharks are even more awesome. Behold "Fins of Fury."

The best seat in the, er, house was atop a Jet Ski or boat anchored near the 30-foot ramp in Biscayne Bay.

There were roughly 110,000 people at the Miami episode of Flugtag, and the guys in the über-skilled Red Bull Air Force were the only ones who really knew what they were doing.

Even Air Force One showed up. "I think it'll fly," said pilot Robin Moran. "This has the president in it. It has to fly." It did. Sorta.

A bunch of Miami Hurricane engineers dressed as Angry Birds handily won the "People's Choice Award," taking 26 percent of the vote.

There's never a shortage of people willing to watch other people break their necks. Some 90,000 people attended the Flugtag in Miami. That's a lot, but nothing compared to the 250,000 who showed up in London in 2003.

What goes up must come down, usually very quickly after going up. None of the "aircraft" made it farther than 138 feet.

The top three teams took home countless memories, the pride of a job well done and, of course, a whole lot of free Red Bull. And a trophy. Because everyone likes trophies.

Photos: Sol Neelman/Wired

MIAMI — Flying a homemade blender airplane is no different than riding a bicycle, but it’s a lot harder to put baseball cards in the spokes.

That much was evident when I finally caught up with Flugtag, Red Bull’s crazy homemade airplane contest, on the sunny shores of South Beach. In German, flugtag means “flight day.” A far better name would be Komisch Flugzeugabsturz Tag, which means “weird plane crash day.” There’s more crashing than flying when people try to get airborne in a flying shark.

Or a flying blender. Or a flying boom box, a flying dragon, a flying dog and, of course, several flying birds of the angry variety. The point, besides selling a whole lot of caffeinated taurine-infused beverages, is to launch homemade, human-powered flying machines into the air.

And by “launch” I mean “plunge.” These crazy contraptions sailed off of 30-foot ramp over Biscayne Bay in the (slim) hope of achieving (something resembling) flight. Red Bull’s held a couple of dozen of these things since 1992, when company founder (and aviation nut) Dietrich Mateschitz hosted the first one in Vienna. They’re held all over the place now.

Despite the promise of embarrassment, and the threat of grave injury, 30 teams cobbled together machines only loosely defined as aircraft. The rules are straightforward: wingspan no greater than 30 feet, weight no more than 450 pounds, and a single pilot aboard. Human power only. And you’ve gotta use eco-friendly materials that float, because you are going in the drink. All I could think is, “You better hope Red Bull gives you wings.”

Presiding over the madness is an eclectic group of local television personae and athletes sponsored by the weird sports, er, energy drink company. Entrants were held to three standards: distance (this being a flying competition and all), creativity and showmanship. Most everyone donned costumes and put on a show prior to takeoff, which is why we saw Barack Obama and Mitt Romney dancing together before a crowd of 90,000 people.

Surely you can’t be serious.

“It was amazing,” said Tomas Orellana, the pilot for Team Venezuela. He wore a flight suit slathered with Top Gun patches. “We’re happy it actually flew. We’re gonna party today.”

As it turns out, Orellana really is a pilot and, imagine that, an aerospace engineer. That explains why the team’s aircraft looked like a glider and, more impressive for Flugtag, looked like it might actually fly. It didn’t do much good, though — his team’s craft traveled only 63 feet, and out of medal contention. They were easily out done by Team Magic Carpet Ride, which defended its title by “flying” 138 feet into the bay. That’s well short of the all-time record of 228 feet set in May in Mainz, Germany, but enough to win in Florida.